This invention has to do with disk drive suspensions, and more particularly with improved load beams for such suspensions. In a particular aspect, the invention provides a suspension load beam better adapted to current manufacturing methods in which during suspension installation in a disk drive the load beam spring portion may be deflected or bent back, beyond its normal operating range. The bending back, even if as little as 0.02 inch of deflection past the datum line, will affect the gram force exerted by the load beam, lessening it and unpredictably, if the load beam is bent beyond its limit of elastic deformation, and to the point of being plastically deformed.